The present invention relates to a system for automatically detecting a fire hazard and for preventing/extinguishing a fire, particularly for a vehicle provided with an internal combustion engine.
Automotive vehicles having engines of the above mentioned type involved in accidents and exposed to violent impacts (crashes) have a tendency to be set on fire during or right after the accidents. This is especially the case for fuel injection engines where the feeding pump continues to provide fuel under pressure, thus representing a great hazard for the occupants of the vehicle. Use of portable fire extinguishing containers to extinguish a fire in an engine compartment is a risky and time demanding task involving exposure to smoke and flames of persons opening the engine compartment and furthermore allowing for inlet of air through the open hood into the engine compartment, thus promoting a spread of the fire.
Consequently, various systems based on automatic detection and extinguishing of a fire recently have been developed and described in several patent applications/patents. Thus, French FR 2,674,441 discloses a system based on use of HALON 13-01 as a extinguishing agent and being situated in a pressure vessel in an engine compartment. The system is activated by detectors of a frontal or lateral impact, or supplementarily by smoke and/or flame detectors. A system of pipelines and nozzles provides, upon detection, automatic discharge of HALON directly to the engine compartment and simultaneously provides for switch off of the fuel pump.
German DE 4,223,293 A1 discloses a combined personal vehicle and truck (lorry) fire protection system based on detection of fire and use of CO.sub.2 as a fire extinguishing agent.
Disadvantages connected to installation/use of these and other known extinguishing systems are the necessity of positioning voluminous containers and auxiliary equipment (detectors, sensors, transducers) in the engine compartment that is lacking in free space and, further, increasing the weight and consequently the cost of the detection and extinguishing system.
Furthermore, Russian RU 2,008,046 describes another fire extinguishing system based on discharge of radiator cooling fluid (water) or an ethylene glycol mixture for fire extinction assisted by pressurized propellant, e.g., CO.sub.2 gas. The claimed advantage of such system is avoidance of special "bulky" containers for the extinguishing agent in the vehicles. However, use of cooling water as an extinguishing agent gives a poor extinguishing efficiency, limited capacity (leakages and losses due to direct through-streaming) and is definitely not applicable for fire preventing purposes.